A formal Georgian garden is being implemented at Macdonell-Williamson House in East Hawkesbury. This exciting multi-year project will progress as funds become available.

While there is no evidence that a formal garden was ever present on the property, it is likely that one was at least planned to complement the elegance and landmark quality of the imposing two-storey stone house with a roof lantern, and to reflect John Macdonell's status as a wealthy former North West Company partner, Justice of the Peace and member of the Upper Canada Parliament. Unfortunately, through a series of circumstances beyond his control, John Macdonell eventually lost his company pension, his investment in a ship building venture and his lucrative fur shipping business. As a result, he never fully realized his aspirations for the property and died penniless.

The Macdonell-Williamson House, a National Historic Site, is architecturally and historically significant. In support of this designation, the federal government provided, free of charge, the services of one of its period landscape architects. The formal Georgian garden was designed in 2000 and was based on typical garden layouts and plant materials of the Georgian period in Upper Canada.

The first phase of the project was funded in 2000 by a province of Ontario grant celebrating the millennium and focused on installing a quadrant-shaped flowerbed. In the following years, the Friends of Macdonell-Williamson House (a local volunteer group) raised funds and installed the rose beds. One of the red roses, the Evelyn Redfern Rose, was hybridized especially for the project and commemorates the last Williamson descendent to occupy the house. The Friends group now tends the flowerbeds.

Future garden projects will focus on the flagstone pathways, circular gravel drive and a clipped privet hedge set in a pea gravel bed. More information on Macdonell-Williamson House …